Flight control system (FCS): High productivity and innovation prepare client for market

The Problem

A top commercial aircraft OEM was behind schedule on a project. They asked the avionics supplier managing the software development effort to accelerate their work by a year. Performance Software was the supplier’s first choice for assistance to meet the aggressive deadline. The technical manager in charge of hiring knew firsthand that Performance Software’s avionics engineers were experts in the flight controls industry.

The Solution

Performance Software’s flight control experience enabled them to quickly integrate into the FCS project. In the first week, their small team was performing design and code tasks, writing test cases, and sharing their industry best practices with other vendors working on the project.

The client’s earned value metrics revealed early on that Performance Software consistently surpassed the productivity of all the other teams, including the client’s resources. To maximize the project’s productivity, the client increased Performance Software’s resources to 25, eliminated all 20 resources for one vendor, and reduced another vendor from 10 to 5 resources.

During system verification and validation, Performance Software created and enhanced several efficiency tools to automate existing manual processes for structural coverage and design analysis. The increase in productivity saved time to recover schedule for the aircraft OEM. Additionally, Performance Software used these custom tools on two follow-on fly-by-wire programs for the client.

The Results

Recovered Schedule

Maximized Efficiency: Saved the client $200, 000 by using custom efficiency tools and sharing best practices with vendor resources.

Saved $200,000

Customer Approval: The client contracted Performance Software on two follow-on programs. Performance Software leveraged the custom efficiency tools they previously created for the client and saved them $400,000.